perjantai 27. maaliskuuta 2015

How to get started with Odroid C1

Odroid C1 is an SBC (=Single Board Computer) similar to Raspberry Pi. If you know how to setup Raspi chances are you'll do just fine with Odroid C1 as well.

Get the image of the operating system and write it on an SD card

There are many web sites where you can download operating systems for Odroid C1. I'd suggest trusting official sites only. Try this one: http://odroid.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=en:odroid-c1 . Android and Ubuntu Linux are the official ones while many unofficial Linuxes are available as well. An 8 GB microSD card is needed. 4 GB is not enough.

Make sure you extract the image by using unzx (on Linux) or other proper software. Otherwise you might end up using corrupted image which doesn't work. In addition write the image on SD card using the Linux command dd or Win32DiskImager (on Windows). There is also the possibility to use eMMC memory which is faster than an SD card. Unfortunately I don't own eMMC module so that issue is beyond this blog post.

Power

You can't power up Odroid C1 using USB ports. A power with the following specs is needed; DC 5V 2A. Fortunately they are not that expensive. You'd better take Odroid C1 with you to the store when choosing the right power device. The head of the jack is very tiny and circle shaped.

There is a built-in RJ45 port on board. If you own a wifi USB adapter or two which work on Raspberry Pi and Raspbian, give those a try on Odroid C1. Keep in mind USB ports might not be powerful enough. Additional USB hub with own power is not a bad idea.